A Grand Adventure

John Schilling has been trying to get this Flagstaff to Grand Canyon ride going for a while. The goal was to ride the Arizona Trail from Bismark Lake (near Flagstaff) to the Grand Canyon. At the beginning of the summer the ride was cancelled due to unusually high temperatures (a wise choice in retrospect) and a tentative retry date was set for the last weekend in September, when the weather should have been better. As the weekend approached, all signs pointed to "GO".

The starting roster changed up until Friday night, with the various things that get in the way of a good time. However, we ended up with 6 brave souls (John, Phillip, Derek, Caroline, Nancy, Jeff) camping out (if you call sleeping in your car camping out) in sub freezing temps at the Bismark Lake trailhead on Friday night. Ray was a "maybe" and would meet us where AZT crossed 418 if he was able to go.

Dawn broke on a cold Saturday morning.

We suited up and got rolling up the hill to the AZT.

Ice crunched under tires, but spirits were high.

Yeah, it was that cold.

There was a good bit of deadfall on the first, downhill section of the AZT. 

I started out what would be a bad trend on that first section by having a slow leak. Turned out it was a pinhole in my tire that the Stan's was not plugging. When was the last time I checked that? And why didn't I do it before this HUGE ride? D'oh. Fortunately, I carry a small bottle of the magic liquid. Squirted about half the bottle in my tire and the hole sealed right up. Yay. 

Motored on down the trail to meet the group at the 418 intersection. Ray was there waiting for us. So, now we were the magnificent 7. Headed out through the Aspen.

I don't have John's photo skills, but tried to get a shot of these little plants, covered in frost. 

The peak starts to recede

We rolled off the shoulders of the mountains and out into wide open prarie. It felt like we were in Wyoming at times. 

Came upon a group of horses who were likely wondering what the heck we were doing out there.

Snack time

One of MANY gates. We couldn't get it open, so just hopped it. I'd love to know how many gates there are across the AZT. I'd bet the number is in the 100s.

Only 24.2 miles to the actual rim of the GC(Grandview). Then another 20 to our final destination.

The trail was pretty hard to follow in some parts. Doesn't appear that it gets much traffic. 

There was some discussion about whether this was ACTUALLY Russell Tank. However, it was definitely completely dry. 

And a nearby cistern was not much help. 

OK, so the actual Russell Tank is still a ways away. It turned out to be completely dry as well. And this is after an unusually rainy monsoon this year. It is really good that we did not attempt this ride earlier in the year when it was hot. 

This guy apparently did attempt the ride during that hot spell. 

We came upon a burn section that was still smoking in spots. It wasn't clear if this was a controlled burn or what. No one was around. 

First glimpse of the canyon in the background. 

Ha! We don't need to walk no bicycles. 

OK, well maybe we do. 

Grandview trailhead. Spitting distance from the rim, but still 20 miles to go to Mather campground. 

Back at an earlier gather point Derek and Phil had decided that they were going to go at a more relaxed pace and were going to take the road from Grandview to the campground. The rest of us had a bit of a debate about whether to continue on the AZT or jump on the road to the campground when we got to Grandview. The argument was going pretty strongly toward the road, as we were anxious to finish before dark. However, John rolled up (he was taking some pictures) and swung the argument back to the AZT. A tougher way to go, but it seemed like we could probably make the campground just before dark. 

So, off we went down the trail. Then Ray had an issue with his back tire. Threw in some Stan's and motored on. Still leaking. There was a shallow slice that we couldn't really see where it was leaking. Ray got out his sewing needle, but it just  broke on the "Protection" sidewall - that was supposed to prevent this sort of slice. Tried some super glue with gorilla tape on top. Rolled a mile or so before deciding that wasn't working. Messed with it some more and the group rolled on for a bit figuring Ray would catch up. When he didn't show by the next turn, I hung back to see how it was going. He finally rolled up and was rather frustrated that he couldn't get this thing to stop leaking. At that point it was time to throw in the towel and put in a tube. Got that done and we rolled out on a pretty fast section. The other folks were waiting for us at Tusayan. 

Additionally, Nancy had a slow leak at about the time that Ray was experiencing his issues. I put the rest of my little bottle of Stan's in her tire and that held until camp that night.

Even with all the messing with tires there was an outside chance of making it to camp by dark. We rolled out on some fast gravel trail,but when we were really close to the park, we had to stop again. Caroline had been having a slow leak for a while that we couldn't really figure out. Ray messed around with the tire and finally decided that she was leaking air from the valve stem - something I had not seen in over 25 years of mountain biking. We pumped her up and continued on - it was dusk and time to power up the lights. We rolled to the campground, found our spots and started setting up in the dark. Up rolled two guys on bikes. Derek and Phil had taken the road from Grandview, gotten some dinner, and still arrived at camp only minutes after us. Apparently they had flagged down an Arizona Game and Fish crew and hitched a bone-chilling ride to Grand Canyon Village in the bed of a pickup truck... a spot normally reserved for elk carcasses. I'll bet that smelled nice. So, there could be some debate about who made the better choice at the Grandview trailhead.

The rest of us walked down to the bus to go get dinner. We wanted to go to the Bright Angel Steakhouse, but there was some confusion about how late the buses ran (our driver insisted 9pm, while everyone else said 10) and we didn't want to risk missing the bus back, so we opted for the cafeteria at Market Plaza. Not the greatest dining experience, but it did the trick. 

I think that most of us slept pretty good that night - not counting the two car alarms that went off during the night. I much prefer camping out in the middle of nowhere.

Got up somewhat bright and early to find Nancy's tire completely flat. Apparently my fix of the prior day didn't cut it. I couldn't find a hole, so I took off the tire and dunked it in the dish cleaning sink at the bathrooms (good suggestion, Ray). Found a small hole and a bigger one. The Stan's I put in the previous day was not sealing it. So we decided not to mess around like we had done with Ray's tire and just put in Nancy's slime tube. Her slime tube had been in storage a while and wouldn't even begin to hold air. Good grief. Caroline offered up her little bottle of Stan's. However, at this point the tire was off and the bead was broken - making an attempt to remount it tubeless a dicey proposition. Nancy had some CO2 cartridges - making it a distinct possibility that this could work. We dumped in the Stan's, cranked in some CO2, and the tire mounted right up. However, it was still leaking from the bigger hole. Nancy broke out her "tire bacon" (essentially, a small strand of the tire plug material used for cars). And we shoved some of that in the hole. Pumped the tire up - it was holding! At this point it was no longer bright and early - and we had not even gotten to the actual rim. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that we would end the day riding in the dark. 

Derek and Phil had decided to take the shuttle back to Flagstaff, so the rest of us motored over to South Kaibab to take in the view.  

Given that we were starting way later than we had hoped and we knew there were many mile to go, we decided to alter the return trip to make it quicker. That meant some on-the-fly route finding and some guesses about where we should go. A map at the ranger station gave us a general idea of what we wanted to do. We ended up doing 0% singletrack. It was all forest road and ranch roads and a little pavement - but turned out way faster than the first day.

After a stop at McDonalds (my first time to have a tasty, tasty McGriddle) in Tusayan for breakfast we headed out on the forest road. 

Mile after mile of really good forest roads. We were making great time and starting to reduce the amount of time we expected to be riding in dark. And then Ray got a pinch flat while bombing down a rocky section of road. Just when we thought we were done with tire issues. Fortunately, Derek had offered up an extra tube while we were back in camp - and Ray had accepted that offer. There was much thanks going out to Derek at that point. Back rolling for a bit - Caroline's tire was looking really low again. This time we decided to swap out the valve stem core with one from her spare tube. Pumped it up and on we rolled, hoping that this would be the last of the tire issues. Thankfully, it was. 

single speed mafia - rolling the flats

We eventually rolled out to 180 for a 12 mile stretch of pavement. On the way we ran into Derek. Before heading home, he had checked the SPOT location transmitted by a unit carried in John's pack.  Noticing that we had diverted from the scheduled route, he turned his SUV northbound to see if anyone needed assistance. Derek offered up some Clif Shots, which Nancy and Caroline eagerly accepted. He and Phil had had their own adventure. Apparently the shuttle from GC to Flag stops only at the airport and train station. So they had to take a cab from the train station to Snowbowl and ride from Snowbowl to the Bismark Lake trail head.  

On toward the finish - with more than enough daylight.  

We dumped off of the pavement onto 151 and rolled up to the split with 418 where we said "so long" to Ray. Then it was John, Nancy, Caroline and myself for the last couple of miles - which ended with a soul sucking ascent. But, as you can see by John's expression, we were just glad to be done during the day. 

So, 85 miles to the Rim over 12. 5 hours. And nearly 79 miles coming back over 9.5 hours. Another big adventure, successfully completed. Personally, I hurt in places I didn't even know I had. But I wouldn't give back the experience for anything. Always great to push the limits - especially with such a terrific group of people.

One of the great things about this was the way we all pitched in with materials and expertise to solve a number of tire related issues. Despite being experienced endurance riders, I think we all learned a few things from this. I'm going to end this with part of an email that Ray sent out this morning.

a few lessons learned that I'm taking away from the last 2 days 

1. Stans is gold...carry 2 bottles on these trips 

2. Bring CO2, gets you back tubeless if you need to break the bead.

3. Tire bacon, everything is better with bacon 

4. Conti-x Kings w Protection are designed NOT to have their sidewalls stitched.

5. Don't ride like an idiot when you have a tube in your rear tire 

6. Bring a gun next time to shoot the guy who's car alarm went off at 2AM 

7. Always freshen up the stans before big rides 

8. Check the integrity of your spare tubes before the trip

Japan

INTO THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN

Nancy had a paper accepted to a design research conference (IASDR) in Japan this past August. Since Japan has been on my "want to go there" list for a long time we decided to go a week early and make it a vacation. The plan was to do a 5-day bike ride through Japan, then head to Tokyo for the conference. Due to the limitations imposed on using frequent flyer miles, we had to stay in Japan a couple of days after the conference ended. So, the last couple of days were unplanned - we ended up going to Kyoto during that time. To make the bike trip happen, Nancy contacted a few local touring companies and we ended up having Kevin at One Life Japan plan a route, book lodging, and rent bikes for us. We decided to go self supported since we've been doing a lot of that with bikepacking trips and were confident that would not be an issue. So, all we needed to do was travel from place to place each day.

Below are my musings on an incredible two weeks in Japan. Tried to keep it concise, but there is so much to tell.  

We took over 800 pictures between the two of us. We've culled them down to a more manageable number. There are lots of smaller stories in some of the pictures that just didn't get into the blog. They can be found here. 




TRAVEL DAY

We clocked 27 hours from wakeup until we got to our room in Takasaki - which is where the bike trip started. The first part of the journey was the usual airport/long flight routine. I wasn't even alarmed by the fact that we were on a fire-prone Dreamliner to Japan. The flight was actually pleasant considering the entertainment options...

   ...and the pretty darned good airplane food.

Yeah, this is OK.

The fun really started when we landed in Japan and started to navigate the rail system. We started out at the JR (Japan Rail) office, where we got someone to tell us what trains we needed to take to get to Takasaki - which is on the far western edge of Tokyo. It turned out we needed to take 3 different trains. The first leg of the trip, a local train to Tokyo station was a fairly uneventful 2 hours. Tokyo station at rush hour was a madhouse! So much fun dragging our luggage through the crowds. However, we lucked out and found our next train to Ueno, where we were to catch the final train (and another 2 hours) to Takasaki.  Ueno station was also chaotic and we found a platform for Takasaki. However, it was a sleeper train - so that wasn't right. Went out and looked around and found another train to Takasaki. That one was jammed to the gills with people - no way we were getting on with our luggage. After visiting a couple of other platforms where people said that wasn't our train, and trying to get help from a guy with very limited English, we finally found a gal who told us to got to the next  platform over. We got on and prayed it was the right train. On the long journey out to Takasaki I spent a lot of time looking at the confusing diagram of the various lines. It appears that we probably could have gotten to our destination on ANY of the other trains we had visited. Sigh. We finally reached our destination and went to exit the station. Nancy couldn't find her ticket. After about 5 minutes of gesturing and displaying of ticket receipts, she finally located the ticket and we were able to put that part of the trip behind us. We learned that you need a ticket to get out of the station as well as into the station. Thankfully our hotel was right across the street.


Japan has vending machines everywhere. And they have all kinds of wonderful things in them. There was a vending machine in our hotel which contained beer, water, and coffee - all of your hydration needs in one place.

After sorting out bike stuff and prepping the bikes, we were ready to collapse for the night.

BIKING  |  DAY 1

We awoke to gray skies and light, intermittent rain. Didn't care, we were ready to get on our bikes. Pedaled through the city headed out to the less populated area. 

We stopped in a convenience store for some breakfast foods - ate them later as we started the 3300 foot climb to the top of Mt. Haruna. For me, dried squid and a rice cake (with tuna inside) was washed down by a can of coffee. Good stuff. 

Then we headed back up the mountain which is a volcano with a lake in the middle.

After much switchbacking we reached the top and coasted down to the lake. Everything was lush and green. Beautiful. 

After some snacking and chill time we rolled down the other side of the volcano, through villages...

....past a cool river gorge. 

Along the way we saw some big bridges being built. 

We meandered up and down (it is quite hilly in this part of Japan) ending up in the little village of Kusatsu.

The  hot spring water is run through these to cool it off before it goes to the various baths. 

KASATSU

Arriving here gave us what would be a daily challenge. We had to find where we were staying for the night. The GPX track ended in town, but there were a few different places to stay nearby - and not a lot of signs in English. Fortunately we had a piece of paper with our destinations each night in Japanese. Nancy took that paper, pointed to the place we were looking at and asked (in Japanese) "where is it?". That is one phrase that turned out to be useful over and over again. We were directed to an narrow hallway that went back to our hotel. Unfortunately they would not let us check in until 3 and it was before 2. So we chilled in front of the main square and soaked our feet in the public foot bath. 

Like many villages in this part of Japan, Kusatsu is built around it's Onsen, or hot springs. Japan is fairly geologically active still and there are hot springs everywhere. The water from these hot springs has all kinds of minerals (though mostly sulfur) that are supposed to be good for your skin and promote all kinds of healing. There is a whole culture around the public baths and lots of tourism related to it. 

Like any bath, you go in these without your clothes - with all of the other people. Yes, the baths are segregated by sex. In truth, these baths were quite relaxing after a day of riding - we grew to rather enjoy them.  There is all kinds of etiquette around the baths - a nice little primer is here. I pretty much blew all the etiquette rules my first time when I went in the women's side of the baths in our hotel. Got confused about the Japanese characters for men and women. Fortunately it was a small bath and there was no one else in there at the time. Nancy actually asked someone about which was which and ended up bailing me out. Damned foreigners.  

Anyhow, here is a peek at that particular bath:

We walked around town and took in the sights. 

Eventually we had dinner in a little Korean barbecue place. It was quite tasty and fun. Thankfully, there was a Korean guy there who spoke English as the menu had no English and no pictures. Nancy made friends with the three ladies sitting next to us (she does that sort of thing) and they shared a chicken skewer (with chicken neck - yum) with her.

BIKING | DAY 2

Rolling out of town the next morning we went along an area where the hot springs were flowing down into town. The steam rising in the morning light was quite beautiful. 

We continued to climb.

Up past some areas where sulfur gas was venting out of the earth. The ground was actually quite warm there.

The yellow is sulfur residue. The picture doesn't show it, but you could see sulfur gas coming out.

The views just kept getting better as we climbed. This climb was just amazingly scenic. 

Once we reached the top there was a little hike up to a vantage point where we could see this lake that was a very unusual shade of blue/green - no doubt from the volcanic chemicals in it. It is really hard to show in a picture, but the color was just beautiful. 

We weren't actually at the top at this point - so more climbing. 

Break time

 And more excellent views.

When we did finally reach the top there was a little ski resort (this area is known as the Alps of Japan) and there was a guy selling these huge peaches. Nancy procured one - it was delicious.

After that little snack we headed down. Along the way we came to a  place that had an escalator going up a hill. No idea what that was about, but it struck me as quite amusing. 






Down we went through little ski town after little ski town. It was so steep at points that I had no problem keeping up with the cars. I only wished for disk brakes. 

SHIBU ONSEN

Finally we rolled into Shibu - another onsen town. 

After some scouting around, we located the Ryokan (Japanese Inn) we were staying in for the night. This Ryokan is really old and had been expanded greatly from the original building. It had a bunch of it's own baths inside the building. Some were the usual segregated public baths (indoor and outdoor), but there were also a few private ones you could share with a friend - or two. 

One of the outside onsen in our ryokan

Again, we were too early to check in so we went scouting for our first sushi in Japan. We found a very small sushi place that actually turned out to have lot of "atmosphere", but not the greatest sushi.

One other thing about Onsen villages is that it is customary to stroll through town in your robe. That way you can visit the various baths in the village. We did not do that in Kusatsu but went for it in Shibu. 

Onsen style 

 Party time in the streets

LOCAL FARE AT ITS FINEST

The place we stayed included dinner and breakfast. Some of the most elaborate, beautifully presented meals I ever remember having. All kinds of stuff that I had no idea what it was. 

Dinner 

Breakfast

BIKING | DAY 3

We woke up to light rain. Darn. We knew that rain was likely during the trip so we had brought our gear. Light rain had turned to steady, determined rain by the time we started. 

The day started out with me following the wrong GPS track. However, we didn't get too far off course and found a sign that pointed us to the snow monkey park - our first destination for the day. Climbing, climbing we reached a sign that pointed down some stairs and a dirt path to the monkey park. Apparently this was the back way. Time for some mountain biking!

Made it up to the monkey area, but they were smarter than us - no monkeys today. Apparently they come out of the mountains to soak in this particular hot spring. I'm guessing that they stayed in bed due to the rain. 

Ah well, we descended back to town and through town to our next stop - the Soba maker. 

We had vague directions and some Japanese symbols to get us there. Unfortunately, the first guy we talked to had no idea where this was. The next person gave us a general area. When we got close we stopped into a little store and the people there were very helpful. There was lots of talking - none of which we understood - and finally a guy came in who seemed to know where we needed to be. He offered to drive there and we'd follow on our bikes. It was raining quite nicely by now. We went around and about. Apparently, Japan does not have the greatest addressing system so it can be hard to find a place. After much backtracking and running around we came to a house where the Soba maker was. We entered soaking wet and the lady provided a place for us to hang our wet gear up. As usual, she spoke only a little more English than we speak Japanese. However, she did a great job of showing us how to make Soba.

We made our own noodles and ate them. Best noodles I had on the trip. 

Also, we had more fantastic peaches - grown in  the soba maker's back yard. This lady was super, super nice and this was one of the (many) highlights of our trip. By the time we were finishing up our Soba feast, it was raining buckets. Torrential downpour. The soba maker's husband had written down that he would drive us to our next place(about another 25 miles or so) if we wanted. We looked outside and said "hell ya". When we were all done, we found that he had loaded our bikes in his truck and we were ready to go. It was a pretty long drive and would have been miserable and dangerous to ride in that weather. 



NAZAWA ONSEN

We arrived at our destination,  Nazawa Onsen, still quite damp. The folks at the place we stayed took super good care of us. 

Out of wet clothes, into a robe. A little welcome snack and tea.

It was like a little bed and breakfast - Japanese style. They let us use their washer to do laundry - which was a whole 'nother experience. First you put in your clothes and soap into the washing machine, then you walk over to the laundry hot spring next door and get a bucket of water to wash your clothes with. When the washing is done, you bring your clothes back over to the laundry hot spring and rinse the soap out by hand. Apparently some people wash and rinse by hand. All in hot spring water.

 

washer woman

After our clothes were hung up to dry we headed to a public bath. Felt great after being wet and chilly. 

Let's go soak

One of a number of public baths in Nozawa

Nozawa is a pretty interesting town. It was one of the main spots for skiing when the winter Olympics were in Nagano and skiing seems to still be their lifeblood. 

There was one hot spring where people cook their vegetables in the water. Unfortunately no one was cooking while we were there. However, we did see some folks cooking eggs in hot spring water.

Again, our lodging included dinner and breakfast. Not quite as elaborate as the last place, but close, and better tasting. It turns out the proprietor was trained as a chef in Tokyo - you could tell. This was our favorite of all the places we stayed.

mmm, dinner.

A few hours later, breakfast. I could get used to this.

BIKING | DAY 4

Morning brought NO RAIN! Blue sky was a beautiful thing to see. We did a loop out of town that went down to the farmland in the valley and then back to town. That was really nice.

Then we headed out of town and up the mountain. 

Just outside of town we came upon a ski area that appeared to have some mountain biking going on. We stopped to look and found that it was a downhill event. Nancy found a young lady (Mio Suemasa) who spoke excellent English - turned out she was in first place and did go on to win the event. That was pretty cool. 

We headed back to the road and continued up the mountain. We could see the race course snaking down the ski hill, off in the distance as we got higher and higher up. 

When we got to the top of the mountain the GPS track took us down a road that had a gate across it. We were not sure if the road was closed due to storm damage or what. However, since this was an adventure, we decided to hop the gate and continue down. It was really great to have a nice downhill on a road with no cars. 

We went for a couple of miles before figuring out why the road was closed. They were repaving sections. So we had short sections of dirt mixed in with the really nice road. That was a treat. 

Once we got down off of that mountain, it was time to climb back up again. Through more beautiful country. 

 

Eventually we made our way over to a small farm - where we would spend the night. 

The owners spoke very little English, so we did the usual pantomimes and attempts to understand each other. Nancy is quite good at this. We got a brief tour of the premises and found out that they have a problem with monkeys coming down to their house. However, they have a goat and the monkeys are afraid of it.

Monkey deterrent

The farmer makes these in the winter, when there is lots of snow. 

The farmhouse

Anyhow, Kevin (the guy who organized our trip) and his young daughter Mona came over for dinner and Kevin did translating duty. Again, we had a really nice dinner. There were a bunch of dishes, including some great tempura . Another feast.

There was a festival in the nearby village, so we went with Mona and Kevin to check it out. There was a group of kids walking through the streets carrying lanterns on bamboo branches and pulling a covered cart with a drummer inside. They were all singing in tune to the drumming. They ended up in a little park where a couple of guys did some sort of dragon dance thing. Fun to see. 




BIKING | DAY 5

Last day on the bike. We had a couple of alternatives for the route. Of course we had to do the one with the most climbing. Started out rolling through very rural areas. There were occasional art installations (called East Asia Art Village) along side of the road. Not something I expected to see in such a rural area.

Again, we came upon a small ski area. Apparently there was a cross country ski/skate time trial going on. I've seen people using these things before, but never thought they'd have competitions. Very interesting. 

The race course

On we went, up and down, through more countryside. So green. So scenic.

At one point we came upon signs for Tour de Tsumari. Apparently we were on the course of a 120km bike ride. We were passed by a couple of guys on fancy road bikes - probably wondering why we were loaded down with gear. 

We kept seeing this machine in the various little villages we rode through. Couldn't figure out what it was. From the pictures we figured out that you dump something in and something comes out, but what? Fortunately Kevin had the answer. Look at the picture closely and see if you can figure it out. It is a version of this. Makes sense in rural Japan.

We knew we had to be getting close to the ocean but couldn't see it. The riding flattened out for a bit and we figured we were home free. But, no, we started climbing again. Up this skinny little road that we seemed to have all to ourselves. No sooner did Nancy say "this is the best road ever", when it turned to gravel. It just wouldn't be a ride without some hike a bike.

New AES race?

Fortunately the gravel was only a mile or so and then we hit pavement again - and downhill. Down, down, down, to the coast. The coast was rather rugged - reminded me of California in some ways. 

We had some issues with locating our final destination, but did eventually find it. Unfortunately we were too early and no one was around to receive us. So, we headed down the road to check out the beach. It wasn't all that much, but I had to get my feet in the Sea of Japan.

After that we went looking for something to eat. Only thing we could find was this little store. Nancy busted out her limited Japanese (konichiwa ,sushi doko desu ka?) to the nice ladies in the store and said sushi a few more times. One of the ladies ushered us into the building next door and up some stairs. At this point we had no idea what was going on as this appeared to be a small inn. We were shown into an empty room where they brought a table and some pillows to sit on. Then they proceeded to bring us some food, then some more, then one of the coolest sashimi dishes I've ever seen - and some of the freshest fish we've ever had. Once again our expectations were blown away. We thought we were going to have to scrounge for lunch in the little store and ended up having a feast. Awesome. 

Now that's fresh sashimi

Lunch over, we headed to our lodgings for the night. This place was a bit more worn than some of the other places we had been at, but we were still fed in high style. Kevin and Mona came out and we had a nice little dinner and chat. Afterwards Mona lit sparklers, then we smashed a watermelon - apparently a local variation of whacking a pinata.

TRAVEL DAY

Kevin figured out what trains we needed to take the next day to get to Tokyo. We could have gone with the cheaper JR trains, but it would have taken the entire day. We ended up deciding to take the slow trains to a station where we could take the faster (and pricier) shinkansen. 

                                                        

Waiting on the slow train 

Waiting on the fast train

TOKYO

This day happened to be my 50th birthday. We started out negotiating the trains. This is a process that is much easier when you can read the signs. However, Nancy bothered the station master at the first station until he gave us all the details of what tracks we needed to be on for our connections. Following these instructions, we made it to the shinkansen with minimal drama. From there it was a comfy ride all the way to Tokyo station. Once at the station we had to re-orient and find our hotel. Fortunately Google maps showed our location on my cell phone even without any kind of internet connection - just used the iPhone's GPS. That was VERY helpful during our stay in Tokyo. We walked for a good while through the high end shopping district (Ginza) and finally came to our hotel. It was actually a really nice hotel even though we got a good price (for Tokyo) on it. Gotta give Nancy credit for scoring that. 

As usual, we were there before the 3:00 check in time (they are really strict about that in Japan) so we checked our luggage and went looking for lunch. Ginza is similar to 5th avenue in New York - lots of high end shopping. Fun for window shopping, but you don't want to actually buy anything. We did not want to throw down on one of the many high end eateries, so we gambled on a little hole-in-the-wall noodle shop. It was the kind where you make your selection based on pictures (descriptions were in Japanese) on a vending machine. Put your money in the machine, punch the number of what you want, and you get a ticket. 

Hand that to the guy behind the bar and have a seat while he mixes you up a bowl of delicious noodles. I would eat at a place like this every week if they had them here. Unassuming and so tasty. Headed back to the hotel, checked in, and chilled. We found a sushi place that Lonely Planet recommended for dinner and went out that night for some birthday fish. While the whole travel thing wasn't great fun, this was a pretty cool way to spend my 50th. 


Since Nancy had a conference to attend and a bit of work to do, I ended up on my own in Tokyo for a lot of the time. I took that time to go out to different sections of the city and just walked around - getting a flavor for the area. Unfortunately, our internal clocks were getting us up early and I discovered that these neighborhoods don't start happening until after 10am. I did get to see a lot, but most of the stores were closed. 



COMMUNICATION

A couple of months before the trip I sampled a number of podcasts that promised to help me learn basic Japanese. Downloaded the free lessons from the one I liked best and started listening to them on weekday rides. Japanese does seem easier than Chinese, but still it is a challenge to learn a new language. Nancy also started listening to these before the trip so we both got pretty good at the basics (hello, thank you - in all three levels of politeness, where is the bathroom, etc.). One thing we did not learn at all was Japanese characters - that would have required quite a bit more time on the front end, but would have been really helpful in many situations. While many Japanese people speak at least a little English, most insist that their English is bad - but it was always better than our Japanese. As it was, most communication was a mixture of rudimentary Japanese, rudimentary English and lots of gesturing. Nancy was particularly good at this - not sure how I'd have made it without her. 



GETTING AROUND

The subway system is extensive in Tokyo. There are a bunch of lines that intersect in complex ways. I had an app that helped me to figure out how to get from one station to another when they were not on the same line. However, beyond that, it was pretty easy to navigate - once you got the hang of it. I thought the rail system in Taipei was a little nicer - but it is not nearly as extensive as this one. 

FOOD

Breakfast - This doesn't seem to be a big thing in the city. The only place we were able to find for breakfast was Starbucks - and they didn't open until 7am. 

On our bike ride the breakfasts we had at many of the places we stayed were quite different from what we are used to. Most of them had smoked salmon (yum) and the rice and miso that seems standard with just about every meal. Also there would be vegetables or other savory type food. Not the sweet sort of stuff (cereal, pancakes, etc) that Americans usually associate with breakfast. And I did not have milk the entire time I was in Japan. 
  
Department Stores - The big department stores in Ginza have huge food courts in their basements. Everything from expensive and beautiful "gift quality" food items to basic lunch/dinner grub. It is much nicer, and tastier than the standard American "food court". We had a couple of meals cobbled together from different vendors in the Matsuya basement - since it was close to our hotel. 

Sushi - We ate a lot of sushi in Japan. I was surprised that it wasn't much cheaper than in the US, and it wasn't always better. Breakfast at the Tsujiki was the best sushi I've ever had - and definitely the best toro (fatty tuna). Also, the little two person, outside sushi bar in the outskirts of Tsujiki was pretty good and quite charming.

  

IASDR

Since this conference was the excuse upon which our trip was built, Nancy was compelled to attend at least some parts of it - and I went to part of the opening day, as well as to see her present her paper.

On our first full day in Tokyo we took the subway over to Toyosu (where the conference was held), which is on one of the little islands near Ginza. Nancy had to sign in and they were showing some Japanese animated shorts. After that was the opening, which the Crown Prince was going to attend. This was a big deal since he only does one appearance each year (so we heard). Security was tight. I had planned to come to check everything out and leave after lunch and before all the boring speeches. Due to the security they had to escort me all the way out of the building before I was free to roam the city. Nancy's paper was on the last day, so I didn't go back there until that day. There was too much to see without sitting in a class listening to people talk. 



GINZA

We stayed in Ginza so we both got to know that area pretty well. Lots of nice stores and plenty of neon and money on display.

 Uniqlo

Those signs up the sides of buildings are for businesses on the higher floors

Electricity conservation doesn't appear to apply to advertising.

One night there was a shindig of the IASDR conference at the Imperial Hotel in Ginza. Plenty of food and drink - it was pretty nice. We ended up at a table with a young lady from the Netherlands (i think) and 3 guys from England. Chatted until they threw us out, and went looking for a bar to do some more drinking at. One of the guys took us to this area where there were numerous joints under the train tracks. That area definitely had character, but was really busy, so we couldn't find a place to go. 

We ended up finding what looked like a little bar down some steps. Once we got in we realized it was a whiskey bar. There were numerous bottles of whiskey on a shelf that had names of patrons on them. Apparently many people bought their whiskey by the bottle and left the remainder at the bar for next time. The place was oozing with personality. We had a couple of whiskeys a couple of beers and one ginger ale. The final bill came to about $75. They charged $15 for a whiskey, $8 for a beer and $8 for the ginger ale. We been had. Being in a basement bar in a foreign country we didn't feel like we had much choice other than to pay up and count this as a lesson. 

That's one expensive drink

Tsujiki

This is where the fish market is. Every kind of fish you can imagine comes through here on it's way to Japan's restaurants - and the Japanese eat a lot of fish. We went down to the market one morning to see what it was all about. We were not early enough to check out the auction so we just strolled around the markets around that area.

Ended up in a very long line for sushi breakfast - that is one of the "must do" things in Tsujiki. After a bit, Nancy located a shorter line so we went over there. After about 15 minutes we finally made it inside a cramped sushi bar. There was no ordering, the only option was a 7 piece set of nigiri with miso (we had miso at nearly every meal - including breakfast). Nancy asked for sashimi and was told no. This turned out to be the best sushi i've ever had. The pieces were not pretty, but they tasted so good. A truly interesting experience, but a little pricey to do often. 

Shibuya 
This is the site of a road crossing that is featured in many pictures that show how busy/populated Tokyo is. The crossing happens to be right outside a very busy subway stop. I was not there at prime time so missed the crush of people. The general area around the station was pretty typical of the area around other stations. Lots of places to eat, bars, and the like. 

Akihabra 
This is supposed to be the techy/geeky part of town. Unfortunately I was there too early in the morning and not much was open. There were a good number of "maid cafes" and the like here too.  

Walked through this area up to Ueno park, which was a nice bit of green in the middle of all the concrete and neon.

Metropolitan Government Building (in Shinjuku)

Sounds totally boring, but it was my destination one morning. It turns out they have a free observation deck on the 42nd floor that gives you a great view of Tokyo. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy that day so I couldn't see far. Not even Mt. Fuji was visible. :(

A nice lady (tourist liaison or something) came up to me and started telling me all about the sights. That was really nice. She even gave me a Tokyo 2020 Candidate City tote bag. After that I wandered through a nice little park across the street, then through the streets for a while.

KYOTO

The journey to Kyoto was the most complex of the entire trip. It consisted of: subway from Ginza to Tokyo station, finding a luggage locker to stash most of our luggage, 6 different trains from Tokyo to Kyoto - all requiring transfers from one train to the other within 3-10 minutes, then two subway lines in Kyoto to our hotel.The difficulty of transferring between trains can not be exaggerated since the signs telling us which platform our next train was on were not always in English. We had to make some good guesses based on departure time and the like. In the end, we (miraculously) made all of our trains. It took us over 8 hours to go from Tokyo to Kyoto. Easily the least enjoyable day of the entire trip.

We only got to spend one full day in Kyoto - so we didn't see all there was to see. However, it is a much different city from Tokyo. Gone were the salarymen in white shirts that were everywhere in Tokyo. Also, I saw far more non-Asians in Kyoto. It was lousy with tourists. The part of the city we were in is more suburbanish - far more trees and natural areas. It is quite beautiful. Temples and Shrines seem to be the thing in Kyoto. They were everywhere. Nancy toured a bunch of them, but I was too tired (and I've seen enough temples) and didn't come along for that trip.

HOMEWARD BOUND

On the way back we sprang for the Super Express shinkansen which got us from Kyoto to Tokyo Station in 2 hours (compared to the 8+ it took us to get there on the JR trains). Of course,  you pay dearly for that convenience and speed. 

Worth the cost

From Tokyo station we had 30 minutes to locate our train to the airport. We had gotten a reserved seat on the express from Tokyo to the airport which would get us there in 50 minutes (it was 2 hours on the local JR trains). However, even this plan proved to have a challenge.

Our last night in Kyoto I suddenly remembered that I didn't know where the receipts were for our luggage in the lockers at Tokyo station. We scoured our gear and I realized that I had tossed the receipts out with all the other receipts that had accumulated during the trip. Ugh. When we got to Tokyo station (our train to the airport was in 30 minutes) the first challenge was to find our lockers. Tokyo station is HUGE. We went around and about - up and down stairs. After 10-15 minutes of frantic searching and multiple attempts to decipher the map of the station, we found the lockers. Fortunately they were near the "English" window at the JR station. We had the nice young lady there call the locker company so they could come liberate our luggage. She got a busy signal so we continued to chill. As we were hanging there Nancy was telling the lady about our journey and she realized that our train would be there soon. The lady said we had to change our ticket before the train came or we would lose it and we had 3 minutes to do that. So, we ran over to the ticket office next door where all the people were engaged with customers. We were doing that panicked/frantic jumping up and down in place waiting for someone to leave. As soon as some guy looked like he was done we ran up there and stated our need. The lady was super fast on her computer and got our tickets changed just in time. This gave us another 30 minutes to get the next train. At this point I was in serious need of a drink and we still didn't have our luggage. We went back to the English window and the locker guy had shown up. He asked all kinds of questions to make sure we weren't stealing luggage. We went over to the lockers and after a bit we got our luggage back. 10 minutes to get to the train. We hauled down to the platform and jumped on the train. Made it. We'd be in time for our flight. 

The flight to the US was uneventful and a measly 9.5 hours. However, we did have a 7 hour layover in San Jose. There were two other flights before ours, but we couldn't get on either one. So, lots of quality time in the airport. We arrived home at around 11pm that night. Another really long travel day, but it was good to be home.